Tom lowe
1/25/2022
The Beloved Disciple
There are many theories about who the beloved disciple was, and though none are conclusive, all are interesting. Now, I must reveal something to you; 'I have to know (must know) the identity of the person Jesus loves. The shadowy figure known as "the disciple whom Jesus loved," appears in five scenes in the Gospel of John (John 13:21-30, John 18:15-18, John 19:26-27, John 21:7 with John 21:20), though some also regard the unnamed disciple in John 1:35-39 as the beloved disciple. In these scenes, the beloved disciple stands in contrast to Simon Peter, characterized less positively. In each instance, the beloved disciple responds to Jesus so that the narrator considers his words praiseworthy. At the same time, Peter expresses confusion, doubt, and misunderstanding before denying that he knows Jesus. In a sense, the beloved disciple gets everything right: twice he is found in a location that indicates his loyalty to Jesus (John 18:15-18, John 19:26-27); he responds appropriately by believing at the empty tomb, even when he does not understand (John 20:3-8); he also recognizes the risen Jesus from afar while the other disciples do not (John 21:7). In what is probably the most critical comment about the beloved disciple, the narrator depicts him as "leaning back on the chest of Jesus" (John 13:25)—an English rendering of the exact Greek phrase used to describe the relationship between Jesus and God the Father ("close to the Father's heart," John 1:18). Each of these depictions reinforces the idea that the beloved disciple should be seen as an ideal follower of Jesus—one with whom any faithful reader can and should identify.
John's Gospel makes any reader who wishes to follow Jesus, a beloved disciple by following his lead. Perhaps a historical individual stood behind the figure of the beloved disciple. Nevertheless, the beloved disciple is anonymous in the text and must remain to fulfill his role in the story. From the pages of the story, the beloved disciple beckons the reader: "Follow Jesus as I have followed him, and you too can become a disciple whom Jesus loves."
The New Testament writings associated with John the Beloved present him as both a teacher and a model for our discipleship. Perhaps the first thing to observe is that whomever this disciple is — namely, the one who is identified five times in this Gospel as "the disciple whom Jesus loved" we know he was the one who wrote the Gospel.
"My most important identity is not my name but my being loved by Jesus the Son of God."
In John 21:20, the last chapter, it says, "Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them" — that is, following Peter and Jesus. And then four verses later, it says, "This is the disciple [namely, the one who was following Peter, the one whom Jesus loved] who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things" (John 21:24). So, there is an explicit claim in the Gospel that this particular disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, is the author of the Gospel.
Plenty of Love for All
Now, before we move toward the identification of who it is, let us be clear that when the author calls himself five times "the one whom Jesus loved," he is not saying that Jesus does not love the others.
• This very author says in John 11:5 that Jesus loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus.
• It is this very author who says in John 13:1, "Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end" — sometimes translated, "to the uttermost." That is all of them.
• Furthermore, in John 15:9, he quotes Jesus as saying, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you" — plural, all of you, my disciples.
• Moreover, in John 15:12, he says, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you" — all of you.
In other words, this writer is not trying to claim for himself the love of Jesus while excluding others from it. Something else is going on. I will come back to that in a minute.
Peter and the Loved Disciple
However, back to the question of, Who is it? Whom are we talking about? We know from the other Gospels that Peter, James, and John were the closest associates of Jesus. For example, those three — Peter, James, and John — went up with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1–8).
From the way this Gospel presents this unnamed disciple, he had quite a close relationship with Peter. For example, John 13:23–24, at the Last Supper, says, "One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus' side, so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking," when Jesus mentioned that there is going to be a betrayer. So, the unnamed disciple is close at Jesus's side, and Peter has this communication exchange with him. Then on the morning of the Resurrection, Mary Magdalene runs to report what she has seen, and it says, "So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved" (John 20:2). So, there they are, apparently hanging out together, this unnamed disciple and Peter.
"This is why I minister, why I live. Christ's love for me controls me."
Then the author of this Gospel tells us in John 21:2–3 that the sons of Zebedee (who would be James and John, as we know from Matthew 4:21) go fishing with Peter and four other disciples; they are going to go fishing after the Resurrection. And when Jesus called out from the shore to them, it says in verse 7, "[The] disciple whom Jesus loved . . . said to Peter, 'It is the Lord.'" And then finally in 21:20, the disciple whom Jesus loved is seen following Peter and Jesus.
Furthermore, we know that Peter, James, and John had a very close relationship with each other and with Jesus. Moreover, we know that John, one of the sons of Zebedee, was on the boat fishing when a disciple who is identified as the one whom Jesus loved was there. And we know that by the time this Gospel was written, James had been killed (Acts 12:2), so he is not an option for this very close relationship with Peter, the one who is called "the one whom Jesus loved."
That leaves us with the high probability that John the Apostle is the disciple whom Jesus loved and is the author of this Gospel. Furthermore, the tradition outside the Bible has almost uniformly agreed with this conclusion ever since the beginning.
'Christ’s Love Controls Me’
This leads us back, now, to the question, Why does this author, John the Apostle, call himself five times “the disciple whom Jesus loved”? Furthermore, let me just give you three closing suggestions.
First, it identifies the author as an eyewitness throughout the ministry of Jesus. He refers to himself in this oblique way at the Last Supper, at the cross as he receives Jesus’s mother into his family, at the empty tomb, and in the face-to-face contact with Jesus after the Resurrection. He was there, and this Gospel is his eyewitness account.
Second, perhaps this is John’s way of saying, “My most important identity is not my name but my being loved by Jesus the Son of God.” He is not trying to rob anybody else of this privilege; he is simply reveling in it: “I am loved, I am loved, I am loved — that is who I am. Jesus loves me.”
And third, perhaps he was speaking like the Apostle Paul, when Paul said, “The love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this: that one has died for all; therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Corinthians 5:14–15). In other words, John would be saying, “I identify myself as loved by Christ because this is the all-constraining, all-controlling reality in my life. This is why I am writing the Gospel. This is why I minister, why I live. Christ’s love for me controls me.”
The phrase "the disciple whom Jesus loved" or, in John 20:2, "the disciple beloved of Jesus, "is used six times in the Gospel of John but no other New Testament accounts of Jesus. John 21:24 states that the Gospel of John is based on the written testimony of this disciple.
The disciple whom Jesus loved is referred to, specifically, six times in the Gospel of John:
? While reclining beside Jesus at the Last Supper, he asks Jesus who it is that will betray him after being requested by Peter to do so.
? Later at the crucifixion, Jesus tells his mother, "Woman, here is your son," and to the Beloved Disciple, he says, "Here is your mother."
? When Mary Magdalene discovers the empty tomb, she runs to tell the Beloved Disciple and Peter. The two men rush to the empty tomb, and the Beloved Disciple is the first to reach it. However, Peter is the first to enter.
? In John 21, the last chapter of the Gospel of John, the Beloved Disciple, is one of seven fishermen involved in the miraculous catch of 153 fish.
? Also, in the book's final chapter, after Jesus implies how Peter will die, Peter sees the Beloved Disciple following them and asks, "What about him?" Jesus answers, "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me."
? Again, the Gospel's last chapter states that the very book itself is based on the written testimony of the disciple whom Jesus loved.
Lazarus
The Beloved Disciple has also been identified with Lazarus of Bethany, based on John 11:5: "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus,” John 11:3 "Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick."
Also relevant is the fact that the character of the Beloved Disciple is not mentioned before the raising of Lazarus (Lazarus being raised in John 11, while the Beloved Disciple is first mentioned in John 13).
The Gospel's author, John, was not a member of the Twelve but the son of Martha. He closely matches the description given by Bishop Polycrates in his letter, a sacrificing priest who wore the petalon (i.e., emblem of the high priest). This John "the Elder" was a follower of Jesus referred to by Papias of Hierapolis and an eyewitness to his ministry. He was the right age to have lived until the time of Trajan (according to Irenaeus).
Mary Magdalene
To make this claim and maintain consistency with scripture, the theory is suggested that Mary's separate existence in the two familiar scenes with the Beloved Disciple is due to later modifications, hastily done to authorize the Gospel in the late 2nd century (John 19:25-27 in particular, as the Beloved Disciple's presence at the foot of the cross, is mentioned only immediately after Mary Magdalene is named among the list of women also present and not prior, nor is he listed accompanying Jesus's mother at the cross prior to the listed women; only upon being acknowledged and commissioned by Jesus to look after his mother is the Beloved Disciple's presence established).
James, brother of Jesus
James D. Tabor argues that the Beloved Disciple is James, brother of Jesus (the type of relative to Jesus, brother or cousin, depends on how one translates the word). One of several pieces of evidence Tabor offers is a literal interpretation of John 19:26, "Then when Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, Woman, behold your son." However, in that Gospel, the beloved disciple refers to the risen Jesus as "the Lord" rather than "my brother.”
Reasons for concealing the identity by name
Theories about the reference usually include an attempt to explain why this anonymizing idiom is used at all, rather than stating an identity.
Suggestions accounting for this are numerous. One typical proposal is that the author concealed his name due simply to modesty. Another is that concealment served political or security reasons, made necessary by the threat of persecution or embarrassment during the time of the Gospel's publication. The author may have been a highly placed person in Jerusalem who was hiding his affiliation with Christianity, or the anonymity may have been appropriate for one living the withdrawn life of an ascetic. One of the many unnamed disciples in the Gospel may have been either the Beloved Disciple himself or others under his guidance, who hid their identity out of the humility of their ascetic commitment and included their witness under that of their spiritual master.
Martin L. Smith, a member of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, writes that the author of the Gospel of John may have deliberately obscured the identity of the Beloved Disciple so readers of the Gospel may better identify with the disciple's relationship with Jesus:
Perhaps the disciple is never named, never individualized, so that we can more readily accept that he bears witness to an intimacy that is meant for each one of us. The closeness that he enjoyed is a sign of the closeness that is mine and yours because we are in Christ and Christ is in us.[50]
John, Son of Zebedee
John’s Hebrew name, Yohanan, means “God has been gracious.” Most of the details about him come from the first three Gospels, which tell the Savior’s mortal ministry story mainly from the same perspective. They all agree that John was the son of a prosperous Galilean fisherman named Zebedee, who owned his boat and hired day laborers to assist him and his sons in their work. John and his brother, James, also had a partnership with brothers Peter and Andrew, and all four left their fishing business when Jesus called them to follow Him in full-time discipleship.
While the Gospels do not mention Zebedee again, the mother of James and John became a follower of Jesus, interceding with Jesus on behalf of her sons and being present at the Crucifixion. Usually identified by the name Salome, the mother of James and John may also have been a sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus, making them first cousins of Jesus and relatives of John the Baptist.
Soon after his initial call, John witnessed many of the Lord’s early miracles and teachings. Seeing these miracles and listening to discourses such as the Sermon on the Mount no doubt prepared John for the moment when Jesus called him to be one of His Twelve Apostles. Of these special witnesses, Peter, James, and John formed an inner circle of close disciples who were present at significant moments of Jesus’s earthly ministry:
• At the raising of the daughter of Jairus, seeing firsthand the Lord’s power over death.7
• On the Mount of Transfiguration, where they saw Jesus revealed in His glory and heard the voice of the Father testify that Jesus was His Son in whom He was well pleased.
• On the Mount of Olives for His final prophecy about the last days.
• In the Garden of Gethsemane, where they were nearby, the Savior began His great work of Atonement.
Just as Jesus Christ gave Simon the additional name Cephas or Peter, which means “rock,” He also gave James and John the title Boanerges, or “sons of thunder.” Because they asked Jesus whether they should call down fire upon a village of Samaritans who had rejected Him (see Luke 9:51–56), this nickname might suggest that they were hot-tempered or at least very strong-willed. However, it is just as likely that the name was in anticipation of the powerful witnesses that they might become, much as Peter’s name probably reflected not so much his earlier devoted but impulsive nature as it did his firmness and strength after Jesus’s Resurrection.
In John’s appearances in Acts, he is portrayed as Peter's strong, steady companion. John was with Peter when he healed the lame man in the temple, and together they boldly preached before the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem. Together, the two Apostles traveled to Samaria to confer the gift of the Holy Ghost upon the Samaritans whom Philip had taught and baptized.
However, in the writings associated with John, he is best seen as a powerful witness of the divinity of his master and friend, Jesus Christ. These New Testament books present John as both a teacher and a model for our discipleship.
Beloved Disciple
Interestingly, John is never named in the Gospel traditionally attributed to him. The Gospel of John mentions the two sons of Zebedee only once, in the last chapter, where they were two of the seven disciples who met the risen Lord by the Sea of Galilee. Even there, however, they are not mentioned by name. Instead, tradition, supported by references in Restoration scripture, has identified John as being the anonymous “disciple whom Jesus loved” who was present at the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, the empty tomb, and in Jesus’s final Sea of Galilee appearance.
He may also have been the “other disciple” who, along with Andrew, had been a follower of John the Baptist and heard him testify that Jesus was the Lamb of God (see John 1:35–40), and he was likely the disciple who accompanied Peter after Jesus’s arrest and helped Peter gain access to the court of the high priest (see John 18:15–16).
In the Gospel of John, the beloved disciple emerges as a close, personal friend of the Lord. Along with Martha, Lazarus, and Mary, John is described explicitly in this Gospel as one whom Jesus loved (see John 11:3, 5). His position at the table during the Last Supper reflected honor and closeness.
Beyond his friendship with the Savior, other passages reveal him as a powerful witness of the most important events of Jesus’s mission: he stood at the foot of the cross to witness the Lord’s death as a sacrifice for sin, ran to the tomb after the Resurrection to confirm that it was empty, and saw the resurrected Savior.
Twice, the Gospel of John mentions that it is based upon the eyewitness of the beloved disciple and emphasizes that his witness is faithful, something which echoes Joseph Smith’s retitling of the Gospel as “The Testimony of John.”
While scholars still debate the identity of the beloved disciple, if he were the Apostle John, he was the source of the material in the Gospel, if not its original author. Why did he remain unnamed, never directly identified as the Apostle John? The answer might partly be because he intended his experiences to type for believers and disciples in every age. By remaining anonymous, he could allow us to project ourselves into his experiences, learning how to love and be loved by the Lord and then gaining our witnesses, which we are then called upon to share with others.
Becoming Beloved Disciples Ourselves
John was a leading member of Jesus’s original Twelve Apostles. He had a close personal relationship with the Savior and served important roles as His witness, leader of the Church, and revelator. However, the way he chose to portray himself as the beloved disciple in the Gospel that bears his name allows him to serve as a model for all of us in our discipleship. From him, we learn that as followers of Jesus Christ, we can all rest in the arms of His love, which love we realize most fully through ordinances such as that which He established at the Last Supper. We, too, can symbolically stand at the foot of the cross, testifying that Jesus died for us, and run with hope to learn for ourselves that the Lord lives. Like John, as beloved disciples, our call is to share that witness with others, testifying the truth and fulfilling whatever calls come our way until the Lord comes again.
John the Apostle must have thought he had seen everything. Having been with Jesus all the years of his ministry, John witnessed more miracles than he could count, saw more displays of power than he could comprehend, and experienced more love than he could fathom. Moreover, one unforgettable morning young John outran Peter to his Savior's empty tomb. Just as Christ took John on a lifelong journey into the depths of His love, He will do the same for you. The bridegroom's love is unmatched and inexhaustible, and He is waiting to lavish it on you, His beloved. You will not be the same.
